Art and Power

Art and Power

Linked axes

Art and power connects Faire société, Espace privé / espace public and the LLCE thematic axis Art et débat d'idées. Central question: How can art challenge, serve or subvert political power?

Three relationships between art and power

1. Art at the service of power — propaganda, state commissions, monumental architecture.
Examples: Soviet socialist realism; Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will (1935); North-Korean mass games.

2. Art as resistance — denunciation, satire, counter-narratives.
Examples: Picasso, Guernica (1937); Banksy's street art; protest songs (Bob Dylan, Blowin' in the Wind; Childish Gambino, This Is America, 2018).

3. Art as soft power — cultural diplomacy and national branding.
Examples: Hollywood, K-pop, the British Council, BBC World Service.

Key vocabulary

English	French
propaganda	propagande
censorship	censure
dissent	dissidence
commissioned art	art de commande
street art	art urbain
satire	satire
iconography	iconographie
to challenge / to subvert	défier / subvertir
soft power	puissance douce

Cultural references

• Visual arts: Goya, The Third of May 1808; Ai Weiwei's installations; Kara Walker's silhouettes.
• Literature: George Orwell, 1984 and Animal Farm; Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale.
• Cinema: Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing (1989); Selma (2014); I Am Not Your Negro (2016).
• Music: Beyoncé, Lemonade; Kendrick Lamar, Alright.

Sample problematics

• In what ways does street art democratise political debate?
• Can a state-sponsored work of art still be considered subversive?
• To what extent does dystopian fiction warn us about contemporary politics?

Strong essay opening

From Picasso's anguished Guernica to Banksy's stencils on the West Bank wall, art has consistently disrupted official narratives. Yet the very same brushes and lenses have also served regimes eager to dazzle their citizens. This ambivalence raises a fundamental question: is art a counter-power, or always tempted by power itself?